Process of artificially seasoning wood.



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BESTAVAILABLE COP MARTIN KLEINST'll'CIKtOF DRESDEN, GERMANY.

lROCESS 0F ARTIFICIALLY SEASDNING 'WQOD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

No Drawing.

To all whom may concern:

a citizen of Germany, residing at Dresden Germany, have invented new anduseful Improvements in Processes of Artificially Seasoning Wood, ofwhich the following is a. specificatnui.

This invention relates to a processof sea:

soning Woodhy artificial ineans and has for its object to shorten thetime required for the seasoning of Wood by subjecting the same tothereaction. gaseous form,

The natural drying ofwood is not merely a physical process ofevaporation of the water contained injfthe wood, but certain chemicalproc sacs take place at the same time These chemical processes mayconveniently he .illed condensation reactions in the sense of theorganic synthesis As a result of this comlensation reactionpresun'iablyunder elimination of waterhi;rh molecular organic compounds aregradually shown by the factthatthe albu nature of these in the woodduring the seasoning, ripening" or aging prc is, however, not lmown. l.have found fl be effected or accelerated-by artificial means.

The wood is subjected, in my process, in a closed vessel to the reactionin gaseous form of such chemicals as are advantagcously used in theorganic synthesis to obtain high. molecular CCllllJOllllKlS. The mostimportant chemicals used for this purpose are the primary oxidationproducts of alcohol, i. c. aldellyllcs and hetoues. F or my presentprocess tor-maldehyde is prefer: bly used: good results are alsoobtained with acrolein and aceton. -Thcsc chemicals so react on thereadily convertible suhstan'cs of the wood, especially the tannins,albumins and carbohydrates, that higlnnolecular stable compounds areformed while water is eli1ninated. Tl1is,process of artificially seasonlug wood also results in preserving the same. lvcn though thus.antiseptic chemicals do not remain as such in the wood but undergochemical changes therein. so that an imprcgnation of the wood,properlyspeaking, does not take place, yct a preserving ell'ectohtaincd. Thismay be explainedby the fact that the unstable substances are convertedinto stable or nearly sta-ble substances he- Application filed March 19,1914. Serial No. 825,779.

of certain chemicals in' 2.1:, this seasoning process may oxyinethylene,as this is easfly cozi 5 Patented Jan. 2, 1917.

tore the'process of decomposition has time to destroy the organicsubstances.

It in addition to the above mentioned chemicals condensing or catalyticagents are used in carrying out my process, the result will be stillmore pronouncedf Primarily the aliphatic and aromatic amins' may be usedas sucl1 additional agents, provided, however, that they are ofavolatilc nature. Thus diethylamin can. be iused economically for thispurpose. Even though all these substances are rather expensive, yet thetotal expense of carrying out my process is not materially increasedtherebyybecause only an exceedingly small amount thereof (about 1% ofthe amount of the chemicals above referred to) is required. j

I recommend as giving particularly good results. the employment, inconnection with formaldehyde, of ammonia to assist the de sired reactionAs a result of the simultaneoususe of these two substances met-hylaminis formed accorcfling to the following formula,

QNH,+3CH O:QNILCILd-COfl-ILO. This reaction has great practicaladvantages because the inethylamin, becomes oftectlvein stozumzsccndz,the result of which agent, but in addition thereto the necessarily varywith the nature and condition of the wood to be treated.- The amount ofchemicals necessary to bring about the desired result will largelydepend upon the amount of water contained in the wood. No fixed rule,however, can be laid down regarding the amount of the various substancesto he used in the practical op-' eration of my process, but experimentswith samples of the wood to he treated and chemical tests of the woodafter treatment will indicatcwhen .the desired reactions are sulnstantlally completed v carrying out my process on a comthe mercial scaleit will he advisable to use formaldehyde in liJS powdered BEST AVAILABLECOP into gas. Moreover if formalin is used water will be generatedduring the process, which is not the case when trioxymethylene is used.c

In most cases a drying of the wood will be necessary in connection with,the carrying out of my process, even if only for the purpose ofremoving from the wood the water resulting from what we have called thecondensation process. Thus my process may advantageously be carried onat an artificially raised temperature. The increase in temperature willat the same time assist the evaporation of the reaction agents and willalso favorably influence the reaction process. The necessary increase intemperature may be obtained by admitting into the reaction vesselsuperheated steam which will be transformed into saturated steam by thewater drawn out of the. WOOt. If conditions are such that theapplication of a high degree of heat seems inadvisable the process maybe advantageously carried out at less than atmospheric pressure, as withreduced pressure evaporation will take place at a correspondingly lowertemperature. In other cases it may be advisable to ope ate under excesspressure to shorten the time required for a complete penetration of thewood by the gases.

I claim:

1. The process of artificially seasoning wood which comprises convertingthe unstable constituents of the ,wood into highmolecular compounds bysubjecting the wood to the reaction of a chemical, in its gaseous form,such as is atlvantagoously used in the organic synthesis to obtainhighmolecular compounds, substantially as and for the purpose described,

2. The process of artificially seasoning wood which comprisestransforming the tannins, albumins and carbohydrates into high-molecularcompounds by treating the wood with a primary oxidation product ofalcohols in its gaseous form, substantially as'and for the purposedescribed.

3. The process of artificially seasoning wood which comprisestransforming the tannins, albumins and carbohydrates into high-molecularcompounds by treating the wood with an aldehyde in its gaseous form,substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. The process of artificially seasoning wood which comprisestransforming the tannins, albumins and carbohyilrates intohigh-molecular compounds by treating the wood with a chemical, in itsgaseous form, such as is advantagetmsly used in the organic synthesis toobtain high-molecular compounds, and a catalytic agent, substantially asand for the purpose de: ribed.

The process of artificially seasoning wood which comprises transformingthe tannins, albumins and carbohydrates into high-molecular compounds bytreating the Wood witha chemical, in its gaseous form, such as isadvantageously used in the orgauic synthesis to obtain higlrmolecularcompounds, and a volatile amin. substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

6. The process oi. artificially seasoning, wood which comprisestransforming the tannins, albumins and carbohydrates into high-molecnhircompounds by treating the wood with formaldehyde and ammonia, the amountof formaldehyde being in excess of the amount needed to convert theammonia into methylaniin, substantially as and for the purposelescribed.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

MARTIN liLElNSllUCK.

lVi tnesses LEO BnncnoL-z, PAUL ARRAS.

